With an SAT score of 1590, just 10 points short of perfect, Bulloch County’s 2024 STAR student Eli Compton plans to go to Georgia Tech to study aerospace engineering and hopes to have a career in designing vehicles for autonomous and staffed missions in space.

“Pretty much anything in the space industry would do for me, though NASA is kind of a dream job,” he says.

Upon being named Statesboro High School’s STAR student, Compton chose SHS chemistry teacher Ashley Thompson as his STAR teacher. So they now share the countywide honors, awarded Wednesday.

“Eli is one of the finest students I have worked with in 16 years,” Thomspon told the Statesboro Herald. “He has a passion for science. He has a passion for learning; he likes to dig deep and understand things on a molecular level, and so he works hard and he’s just every teacher’s dream.”

The winning Student Teacher Achievement Recognition, or STAR, pairs from five high schools in Bulloch County were recognized in a lunchtime ceremony hosted by the Rotary Club of Statesboro with the Bulloch County Foundation for Public Education as the program’s other local sponsor.

Hayley Greene, the Bulloch County Schools public relations director, coordinates the STAR awards program for the three public high schools and two participating private schools. She introduced the school-level winners and then announced Compton and Thompson as the county-level STARs.

Statesboro High STARs

Eli Compton, 17, is the son of Matthew Compton, Ph.D., a member of the sociology and anthropology faculty at Georgia Southern University, and Stephanie Compton, M.Ed., principal of Julia P. Bryant Elementary School, who both attended Wednesday’s event. The STAR student has a sister, Lauren, now in eighth grade.

Last summer Eli attended the Governor’s Honors Program in chemistry. He competes on the SHS Math Team and in Science Quiz Bowl, “like you would kind of expect of someone who enjoys science like I do,” he said.

While still a Statesboro High student he is dual-enrolled at Georgia Southern, currently taking Calculus III and Physics I. Back in eighth grade he won the Savannah Regional Science Fair. He participated in the State Science Fair in both seventh and eighth grades, when his continuing project involved testing the tensile strength of 3D-printer filaments of different price points, and went to the Broadcom Masters Tournament in eighth grade.

First-time STAR

This is Thompson’s first time being selected as a STAR teacher, in her 16 years of teaching, all at Statesboro High. Compton was in her Honors chemistry and Advanced Placement chemistry classes the two previous years.

“I always enjoyed her class, both in my 10th grade, and especially my 11th-grade year,” he said. “She always, like, broke down the concepts and made them really fun and engaging, and made her class into definitely one of the better parts of my day.”

Provided they meet other basic criteria, such as ranking among the top 10 students or top 10% of their senior class in grade point average, STAR students are those who attain their school’s highest scores from a single sitting of the SAT college admissions test. A perfect score would be 1600, including 800 in the reading and writing section and 800 in the math section.

While Compton’s score was just 10 points short of perfect, two Southeast Bulloch High School seniors came just 10 points short of tying with him.

SEB’s 1580 tie

In fact, after Victor Lee and William Wu both scored 1580 on the SAT, they are both Southeast Bulloch High’s 2024 STAR students. All STAR students are asked to select, as STAR teacher, the one they feel has most influenced their educational journey, so SEBHS also has two STAR teachers this year.

Victor Lee, son of Jisun Choi and Jaehyuk Lee, plans to attend the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and major in finance. He aspires to become an investment banker. He selected Danielle Hibbs-Heiser, his 10th-grade AP biology teacher, as his STAR teacher.

“When I was overloaded and stressed by coursework, she always made sure I understood everything before a test, and helped me understand topics I struggled with,” Lee said.

This, and other quotes below, and most of the information on students and teachers were supplied by Greene in press release materials.

William Wu, son of Ji Wu and Xueqian You, plans to attend Georgia Southern, where he is currently dual-enrolled, and major in computer engineering. He chose Corey Green, a teacher of English at Southeast Bulloch High, as his STAR teacher.  Wu said he had fun and learned a lot about poems and other literary material in Green’s AP English Literature and Composition class in 11th grade.

Bulloch Academy

Bulloch Academy’s 2024 STAR student Sammy Mendez, has been accepted to the Georgia Institute of Technology and Mercer University in their “early action” admissions programs. He intends to major in neuroscience and aspires to enter the medical field as either a neurologist or rheumatologist.

He also reported applying to the eight Ivy League schools, as well as to Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and Emory University for regular decision, and so he expects to hear back in late March about any further acceptance offers.

Sammy, son of Juan and Margarita Mendez, chose Beth Burke, a math teacher at B.A. who has taught him calculus in 12th grade, as his STAR teacher.

This is the fifth time in her career that Burke has been selected as a STAR teacher by one of her students.

“As a teacher, you never really know who you make an impression on,” she said. “It is always such an honor when a student lets you know that you did make a difference.”

Portal High School

Upon being named Portal Middle High School’s 2024 STAR student, Gage Bunch chose Dennis Moore, his pre-calculus teacher in 12th grade, to share the honors as STAR teacher.

Gage, son of Ed and Stacy Bunch, plans to enlist in the U.S. Army before later attending college and majoring in computer science.

This is the sixth time that Moore has been at least a school-level STAR teacher. In fact, he was also the school’s STAR teacher last year, chosen by 2023 Portal High STAR student Chandler Grooms.

“It is a great honor to be selected by Gage Bunch as his STAR teacher,” Moore said. “Gage is an outstanding student who is extremely intelligent and highly motivated to do his best.”

Trinity Christian

Garrett Suggs, Trinity Christian School’s 2024 STAR student, plans to pursue a degree in computer engineering. His parents are Vince and Tammy Suggs.

Garrett has applied to Georgia Tech, Duke, the University of Georgia, Clemson University and Auburn University. He hopes to work as a hardware engineer, compiling research and designing more efficient computer systems.

But he chose Ken Miller, his history and social studies teacher for four years – through the Geography, Church History, Civics and Economics, AP U.S. History, and Dual Enrollment World History I and II courses – as his and Trinity’s STAR teacher.

“Mr. Miller has always taught every class conversationally, keeping me engaged and interested in learning,” Suggs had said. “He treats every student with respect and kindness in a highly understanding yet fair way. One of the things I value most about him is his willingness to answer questions.”

Region next

Compton and Thompson will now represent Bulloch County in the Region 8 STAR competition, hosted by the Statesboro Exchange Club for a region encompassing 17 other school systems. The region banquet is held annually on the Georgia Southern campus, and the Region 8 winners will advance to the state STAR competition, sponsored by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.